Troops of 7 Brigade and 8 Task Force Division of Nigerian Army have killed seven Boko Haram terrorists in clearance operations at Gratte in Kukawa Local Council of Borno State on Wednesday night.

The soldiers also killed a notorious Boko Haram kingpin, popularly known as the Albani of Monguno, operating in the northern part of Borno State.

Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, disclosed this yesterday in a statement issued to newsmen in Maiduguri.

The statement reads in part: “The troops also recovered two vehicles, seven motorcycles and an AK 47 rifle, two Boko Haram terrorists hoisted flags, three vehicle tyres, a vulcanising machine, a solar panel and bundles of chewing sticks (Aswaki), which the terrorists believed have spiritual and medicinal values while waging jihads in any part of the world.”

In a related development, troops of 22 Brigade of the Nigerian Army also arrested five terrorist suspects at Ajiri and Antul villages along the Dikwa-Gulumbagana Road.

On the arrested suspects, Usman said: “The underage male children were dressed in new Boko Haram uniform we earlier reported. The troops recovered a truck, two Golf Volkswagen cars painted in mud, four bicycles and 3x5KVA power generating set, as well as 55 bags of corn.”

Meanwhile, as the Nigerian military continues its efforts to eliminate the seemingly inexorable threat to national security posed by the Boko Haram insurgents, the Federal Government yesterday signed an agreement with France to share intelligence, equipment as well as other technical and tactical co-operation to aid the effort.

The agreement was signed yesterday in Abuja by Ministers of Defence of both countries.

However, Nigeria has agreed to release assets recovered from the sect to the French Intelligence to analyse before sharing the results with Nigeria Armed Forces.

Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali in his welcome address, said it is not strange that Nigeria is signing the agreement because it is a global threat; thence most countries of the world at this time are uniting to fight it with a view to restoring the shared values of peace and tolerance for development.

In his response, the French Defence Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, expressed optimism that the technical co-operation and strategies outlined in the agreement would achieve the desired result, saying: “The strategic dialogue is centred around the four issues earlier mentioned by the minister. Our strategic engagement is to express our willingness to discuss issues of defence and common interest and again our operational co-operation.”